Thursday, January 09, 2014

I helped out Pixar Storyman Jim Capobianco with the poster art for his annual Bay Area International Children's Film Festival. I'll be doing a drawing workshop for kids that weekend exploring the space center and sketching. I hope to see some of the great animated shorts Jim has lined up too. Click this link to see the line up

Friday, January 03, 2014

Late last year we had a guest drawing instructor come into Pixar- Mike Mattesi-who specializes in dynamic drawing and did a 10 week course. I only caught the last 2 sessions but it was refreshing to pause the Walt Stanchfield 'story' driven gesture class and let loose with some more muscular sketches. I haven't worked this big and bold in several years- dirty charcoal & thick markers on newsprint!

Around the same time Glen Keane visited the studio to deliver an inspirational lecture on tapping into creativity by thinking like a child and ensuring 'play' is present in the work environment. His impassioned and sincere speech was extremely motivating, and seeing him animate 'live' is magical!
He flipped through a sketchbook he had kept while visiting France last summer and found a sketch of a young girl carrying a baby while walking across a playground. Glen took this as his jumping off point and animated her across the page- straight ahead-dealing with the weight distribution as he went. He said viewers won't SEE the weight changes but they'll FEEL it. The point of focus will be in the eyes-we look for the connection between the girl and the baby and how their gaze meets at that close distance.

I am a story artist working in the animation industry. I retain all copyrights to original artwork & material posted on my blog.Copyright for the GARY & Ronald Searle blogs is held by the respective artists.